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This post covers Monday & Tuesday.
As part of trying to post more frequently = shorter posts, expect posts on MONDAYS, WEDNESDAYS, and FRIDAYS (it was previously Mondays and Thursdays)
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MONDAYActually had a good sleep for once, but felt like I could've used another hour in bed!
I got up nice and early, had breakfast and all that, and walked to the theater early so I could have time to warm up.
I wanted to feel more comfortable and ready for our first full rehearsal in the pit!
And I brought the Positive Potato that Jameson got me. For moral support :)
I quickly found out that it would be best to take my in-ears out when playing certain pedal notes on the bass, at least for a while. I am not used to playing bass with earbuds in, so listening to how it sounds with and then without will help me to acclimate to the change and trust my ears more.
Although we received corrections and notes each time we stopped playing, this rehearsal wasn't really for the orchestra.
It was for
keycomp, to make adjustments to how it sounded both with the live musicians and also in the house.
We'd play most of a number or maybe all of it, then stop and the keycomp folks would make their changes or ask to hear a specific section again so they could tweak it. These tweaks can include changing the overall volume of keycomp; changing the volume of specific instruments in keycomp; changing the tuning/pitch of individual instruments within keycomp; and even changing the articulations of keycomp instruments! And I'm sure many other types of changes that I'm not aware of. Sometimes they asked for all of us to play our parts as normal, other times they'd ask for just a few of us so they could match one instrument's volume or articulation.
I guess that's why it's called "sound design." The keycomp guys were definitely designing some sounds today!
Rehearsal was from 10am-5pm with a lunch break. Afterward we were treated to some nice snacks in one of the hotel conference rooms (it was their way of apologizing for construction going on in the hotel during our stay.) There was cut fruit, crackers, meat and cheese, wings, pretzel rolls, cheese dip, sliders, and brownies, plus misc teas and juices. It was really nice! I had some wings and a brownie and ate my actual dinner later while watching LEGO Masters "with" Jameson.
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I wanna mention one thing that I'm a bit proud of.
In the last post, I mentioned getting very frustrated with my playing and having to give myself a pep talk about it. Well today I woke up determined to do my best, stay positive, and play confidently whether I ended up feeling confident or not.
It worked. There were times that I started to feel inadequate or worry that I wasn't doing a good job. And at those times, I was careful not to back off, and to play confidently even if inside I was cringing.
No one complained about my playing, or sat me down to discuss my ability to do this job.
Whatever I was nervous and insecure about did not come to pass.
Are there things that I could do better, of course. But the same went for everyone. Every single person made mistakes today, including the MD, including the guys programming keycomp. It doesn't make them any less skilled or qualified. It makes them human. And I need to consciously, actively extend that same grace to myself.
As a person with a loud inner negative voice who has constantly put herself down since childhood, being able to project confidence today was a big deal.
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TUESDAYJust a half day of rehearsal but it started pretty early, so I was up at 6. Breakfast and walking to the theater, warming up and chatting with the other musicians about generic stuff like our dress code, transporting misc items on tour, the fancy new Nespresso coffee machine that the musicians at
Hamilton sent us as a gift.
Rehearsal went well, though many of us felt that
intonation was kinda off. Having done many tech rehearsals I know that we'll have some quality fluctuations for a while until we all settle in. Again, considering how little time we've actually spent playing together, if intonation is our big worry then we've got nothing to worry about.
We were finished at noon, and I stomped up to Company Management looking for a fight :p
Not really, but I had recently been told that I would not be able to continue working as a substitute musician for Walt Disney World :(
Disney doesn't like it's cast members to work multiple positions within the company, so I knew that not being allowed to do both was always a possibility, but had hoped an exception could be made.
Company Management already knew about all of this, but after finding out they planned to remove me as a sub I'd spoken to my colleagues at Walt Disney World and they'd advised me to ask for more information, so that's what I was all-fired to do today.
But as soon as I walked in, Maia (Company Manager) said, "I sent you an email!"
Like a good little trombonist I hadn't checked my email during rehearsal. Sure enough, HR been able to work things out so that I WILL be allowed to continue subbing at Disney World! YAY!!! I'm so relieved and happy! I thanked Maia profusely.
Back at the hotel I was happy to see that my room had been cleaned and refreshed :) I clean up after myself pretty well but we're here for several weeks so I'm gonna have housekeeping come by once a week. A rare treat. Then I received a
19-quart weatherproof container I'd ordered to put inside my trunk. Another musician suggested these because they fit perfectly inside our trunks and can hold things that might leak or melt or get damaged form bouncing around.
On top of all that, the front desk gave me a
warm cookie :D
The rest of my day was spent making plans for the upcoming day off, chatting with Jameson and the two female musicians in our pit, and watching Dune since it was rainy out.
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Fun Facts:Touring shows have what's called a "footprint," which is kind of like the storage and transportation space that all of it's equipment, personnel, costumes, set pieces, etc are expected to take up. Beauty and the Beast's "footprint" is based on that of the Aladdin national tour.
Maybe partly because of that, I've discovered that we've got some road cases and equipment that were quite clearly "borrowed" from the Aladdin tour! I wonder if they'll update the labels, or keep them the same as a bit of origin story/reminder to return.
Proctors Theater here in Schenectady has a cute little shelf in the main stairwell, and visiting shows have used it as a place to leave mementos (there are also wall tags and signed dressing room tables here.)
Here is what the stairwell shrine looked like when I was here with Tootsie in 2023:
...and here it is today! You can tell I had to back up to get everything in the photo, a lot has been added!
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Wednesday: Another half-day, and picking up a rental car.
Thursday: Driving to Dillon Music to try out a Yamaha bass trombone, and maybe some side quests if there's time.
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susandennis
